Saturday, February 14, 2009

These are all stories from MacRumors.com (and a few other sites) relating to the release of the iPhone 3G which was announced June 2008. Some 'Rumors' were True, some false.

It is expected that a Next Generation iPhone is due out this Summer, probably WWDC in June as the first and the second generation iPhone were both showcased at recent WWDC shows since June 2007.

This list of rumors I've posted was meant to be somewhat of a 'Timeline' from when the first 3G Rumors came about until it's launch. Notice how the closer it gets to WWDC'08 the Rumor Mill is on fire! You can see below how crazy it started getting around April as story after story after story just spewed out on a near daily basis!

I'm going to follow up the list below with a list of new rumors that have been surfacing lately about the expected Next Gen iPhone supposedly (hopefully) to be released this upcoming WWDC'09.

After that list I think I'll go back and find all the little hardware speculation stories about what's to be expected in the "next" iPhone 'sometime' in the future. ;)

Among the new capabilities will be GPS and expanded WiFi capability as well as the ability to sync with email servers. Apple research and development executives are according to sources in Taiwan trying to overcome a lack of expanded media support for Flash memory.

"When we looked at 3G, the chipsets are not quite mature, in the sense that they're not low-enough power for what we were looking for. They were not integrated enough, so they took up too much physical space. We cared a lot about battery life and we cared a lot about physical size. Down the road, I'm sure some of those tradeoffs will become more favorable towards 3G but as of now we think we made a pretty good doggone decision."

Our phone has a talk time of 8 hours and that's really important when you want to use your phone for internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to 5+ hours, something we think well see later next year.

The new Broadcom chip is described as "a new single-chip HSPA (high-speed packet access) processor that integrates all of the key 3G (third generation) cellular and mobile technologies on an extremely low power, single 65 nanometer CMOS die. "

...due to a pushout in the introduction of such 'killer applications' as the second-generation iPhone from the March/April time frame to mid to late summer, demand for NAND in 1H08 could weaken more than expected,"

The two iPhone revisions are predicted to be- Increase in Flash storage (minor update, earlier in the year)- 2nd Generation iPhone with 3G and could have a different look (major update, second half of year)

Wherever the iPhone ends up in Japan, it means one thing - it has to be a 3G model, as there simply is no GSM network in the country. Suggestions of a new model with a CDMA chip of some sort appearing late in 2008 suddenly seem so much more believable.

Kevin Rose follows up his previous rumor that a 3G iPhone is coming in the "next few months" with a Twitter post claiming he's heard confirmation from a high level Vice President at a big company that works with Apple. According to his source, "[the new iPhone] will ship in June w/3G and GPS".

Gartner doesn't know whether Apple has actually placed an order for 3G iPhones, but the researcher does believe the next version of the touch-screen smartphone will have those high-speed capabilities. "If Apple was to place an order, than 10 million would be a reasonable number," Hafner said. "And we absolutely believe that in the next-generation iPhone 3G will be there."

We cared a lot about battery life and we cared a lot about physical size. Down the road, I'm sure some of those tradeoffs will become more favorable towards 3G but as of now we think we made a pretty good doggone decision.

The sudden shortfall has been further confirmed by reports from AppleInsider readers. In several cases, their own investigations reported all stores in a given state running out, including Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Many if not all AT&T stores were also said to have run out of inventory.

Now Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray has gone a little further, reporting that he’s called around to 20 Apple stores around the U.S. and found the same thing. No iPhones to be had. Additionally, lead times on delivery of iPhones from Apple.com is still 5-7 days.This leads him to believe two possibilities. 1) A new iPhone is coming sooner than originally expected or 2) There’s a production or manufacturing problem. He figures the chances that a new iPhone are coming at about 80%.

Apparently the new iPhone will also sport a glossy black back, replacing the satin nickel look found on the current model.If iPodObserver.com's source is correct, the redesigned iPhone back also drops the black plastic end piece that covers the antenna, and it appears that Apple will continue to offer an 8GB model.

9to5Mac points out that Walt Mossberg may have confirmed the release timeframe of the 3G iPhone, expected to be in June. In an online video (about 6:50 in), Mossberg casually but confidently says that the iPhone will be 3G in 60 days.

The problem with this theory is that Apple frequently announces new products that don't first show up in the FCC database. Also, companies are allowed to have some degree of confidentiality for products.

But Walt notes that in the clip, he's making an aside during a larger point about data networks, and says that in any event, he doesn't know if it's correct. So where'd it come from? It's a ballpark estimate, he says, based on... the same speculation the rest of us are seeing.

According to their sources, the 3G iPhone will indeed be introduced at Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in June. The 3G iPhone is expected to retain the same price points as the existing iPhone with an 8GB model priced at $399 and a 16GB model priced at $499. While they mention some speculation about a $599 32GB model, this remains unconfirmed.

AT&T is preparing to subsidize $200 of the cost of a new iPhone, bringing the price down to $199 for customers who sign two-year contracts, the source says. Apple is expected to have two versions of the new iPhone, an 8-gigabyte-memory and a 16-gigabyte-memory model with price tags widely expected to be $399 and $499.

Companies overseas have already started working on products for this one, which is basically the same size as the current iPhone, but has slightly different curves, coloration, and materials. Specs for either or both of these models could be nothing more than disinformation put out to burn developers, but they could also be correct.

The 3rd photo also seems to indicate that this is simply the outer shell rather than the entire iPhone since the Power button is not present. Also possible is that this simple represents another shell or case replacement for the current iPhone much like the previous Black case.

Note that this is not fake, it is in the beta 5 .ipsw, but will normally not show up on an EDGE iPhone. Turning 3G on will just crash the phone if you use an EDGE phone. If you do not believe me, then decrypt the beta5 rootfs dmg, and see for yourself in /Applications/Preferences.app/Network.plist

An AT&T spokesperson just told us that the iPhone Black dropdown reference on the AT&T Wireless website is just a temporary placeholder. The spokesperson says that it was used over the weekend for a "scheduled catalog update," distinguishing the various iPhone models (4GB, 8GB and 16GB).

We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA. By Xmas this phone will be capable of 42mbs which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world

Since mid-March, Apple Inc. and its logistics partners have imported 188 ocean containers of a product type never before declared on its shipping manifests. [...] On March 19 Quanta delivered 20 ocean containers of merchandise, described on the Bills of Lading as "electric computers," to Apple, Inc. Neither Apple, Quanta, nor any other company has ever used this product description for any shipments to the U.S. [...] Over the last few months shipments of "desktop computers" and other devices did not fall off, indicating that these "electric computers" represent a new product for the company rather than a simple renaming for their Customs declarations.

The ad agency is New York-based BBDO which has did some Apple IPOD commercials. Speculation is that the Hawaii commercials are about Apple’s new IPhone 2 which will be released early next month. About 30 of the 40 production crew are locals…

The specs claim the usual 3G and GPS support, along with either 16GB or 32GB of storage. Unique to his report, however, are claims that the 3G iPhone will be 22 percent thinner and have better battery life.

"Just one year after launching the iPhone, we’re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year."

Pricing and AvailabilityThe iPhone 3G will be available July 11th in 22 countries for $199 for 8 GB and $299 for 16 GB. The 16 GB model also comes in white. Apple has posted details on their website, but it is currently overwhelmed.

Apple notes that on Monday none of its 137 locations in the US will have stock of the 8GB iPhone and that the only location to have the 16GB black iPhone will be its retail store in Pleasanton, California (Stoneridge Mall). The only other two stores to have stock of the iPhone are the retail locations in Salem, New Hampshire (Rockingham Park) and New York City (Fifth Avenue) -- both of which only have the 16GB white iPhone model

“The Apple iPhone 3G is a dramatic example of this transformation,” Stephenson added. “In the days following our exclusive U.S. launch of this new device, powered by the nation’s fastest 3G wireless network, customer response has been everything we had anticipated and more. This strengthens our wireless business, and it reinforces our positive view of the opportunities ahead for AT&T and the industry.”

Here's news possibly pertaining to a Next Gen iPhone possibly due June WWDC'09

With Apple chief executive Steve Jobs skipping out on this year's Macworld Expo, investment bank Piper Jaffray isn't holding high hopes for new product announcements outside a pair of refreshed Macs, but said in a report Tuesday that a redesigned iPhone should surface in the months that follow.

- 1st spotting of the "iPhone 2,1" device occured in early October 2008- Usage picked up in mid-December 2008- A few dozen distinct "iPhone 2,1" devices have been detected- Almost exclusively located in south San Francisco Bay Area- Both AT&T and Wi-Fi connections

"Tim Cook stated that since Steve Jobs announced his leave of absence, he was spending more time on new products, how Apple could take the iPhone into new markets and examining iPhone's business model"

The analyst goes on to say that there were "several interesting tidbits" pointing to new iPhones and possible different price points in the near future.

While the likelihood of Apple releasing new iPhones this year is all but certain, a discussion between analysts and Apple's top brass has also dropped clues that the iPhone's pricing may not be static this year.

Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research mentions in a research note that a discussion with Apple COO Tim Cook, CFO Petter Oppenheimer and worldwide marketing senior VP Phil Schiller point both to an upgrade to the touchscreen device as well as to the possibility of "different pricing/price points" this year, with Cook "examining iPhone's business model" for possible changes.

Cook and Schiller in particular have teased a "very exciting" 2009 for iPhones.

(More Updates to Come!)

Stories pertaining to possible "New Hardware" and "Software" pertaining to future iPhones. (Not ALL Software news but the more Notable ones...flash, c&p, etc...)

Apple Computer in a new patent filing discloses that it has been experimenting with consumer electronics casing designs comprised of radio-transparent ceramic materials such as zirconia, which would allow wireless signals to pass through the enclosure and potentially enhance transmissions.

Intel had demoed an iPhone-like device based off the platform, due in 2009, at the latest Intel Developer Forum (Engadget). Like the Samsung ARM processor currently used, Moorestown is a system-on-chip design, and will combine processing abilities such as the CPU, graphics, video and memory controller onto a single chip. Moorestown can also support standardized communications capabilities such as Wi-Fi, 3G and WiMAX.

"They [Apple] aren't stupid. They won't want to give you everything at once. You wait, there will an exciting partnership with YouTube that adds video functionality and then lets you upload to the site in no time", an industry insider told Pocket-lint.

Intel and Micron announced last week that they have developed a new high-speed NAND flash chip which can reach speeds up to 200 Megabytes/second reads and 100 Megabytes/second writes. Conventional Single-Level-Cell Flash memory is reportedly limited to 40 Megabytes/second reads and 20 Megabytes/second writes.

The Moorestown platform is the successor to the Menlow platform due later this year. Both are based around the Intel Atom processor, which Intel expects to launch a new class of mobile internet devices. Moorestown is not expected until 2009, so its use would likely be for the third or later iteration of the iPhone, but could also find its way into the rumored Apple mini-tablet.

Update: Recent analysis by Anandtech suggests that Intel's Atom's processors (and therefore Moorestown) may not be headed to the iPhone until at least 2010.

The heart of the problem are the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements. Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck. My 5 minute refresh kept the hardware on and used up a lot of precious power.

A source (Apple Inc employee), who chose to remain anonymous, told us that senior executives of the two companies have already met once on Tuesday and the next meeting has been scheduled for Friday morning. The source confirmed that the executives will continue discussions over licencing and implementation issues of iPhone haptics.

As part of an Intel event for the 40th birthday of the semiconductor company at Munich’s BMW World, Germany managing director Hannes Schwaderer confirmed today what has long been a rumor on the Internet: namely, that there is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version, Schwaderer said. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

PCGH-Editor Daniel Waadt was there as well an can attest, that Schwaderer referred to the iPhone as an example for the use of the atom-processor from Intel. The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.

Apple is investigating the use of solar power in versions of their mobile devices -- both handheld devices and portable computers. Integrating solar power into a mobile device holds the enormous potential of extending battery life significantly. However, successfully integrating solar panels into these small devices is not without its challenges.

The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.

Apple acquired P.A. Semi in late April, and reports had suggested that Apple was not interested in any of their current technology. This generated some speculation about what specific project they had in mind when acquiring the company.

Apple describes the use of proximity sensors, ambient light detectors, temperature sensors and accelerometers to help determine the current state of the device. Apple has already incorporated basic state detection into the iPhone. When a user holds the current iPhone to their ear, the proximity sensor disables the touch screen to prevent unintentional key presses.

Apple suggests the addition of pressure sensitivity to provide additional functionality. For example, touching an item in a list with your fingertip would select it, while pressing it with your fingernail (or otherwise shielded finger or stylus) could bring up a pop-up menu (see picture above). Another interesting possibility would be the ability to add text-selection and copy/paste functionality. In an email, for example, while swiping with your fingertip would scroll the screen, using your fingertip or stylus could invoke text selection.

Also relevant to Apple's recent mobile phone push is the fact that GPUs may provide handheld devices with extra computing power with less power consumption. According to the president of Khronos, GPUs can be 10 times more power-efficient than using a CPU. This can improve both video and audio performance on mobile devices.

As a result of this new agreement, it is expected that Imagination’s IP cores will feature in a number of new SoCs to be used in this company’s future products. Under the terms of the above licensing arrangement, Imagination will receive on-going licence fees as well as royalty revenues on SoCs incorporating Imagination’s IP.

By developing its own ARM variant, Apple could create a processor that meets the specific needs of the iPhone and iPod, building support for functions such as the touch screen or scroll wheel into silicon and possibly savings on costs by reducing the number of processors needed in each device. In addition, Apple’ will be able to maintain tighter controls on who knows what about its future products by disposing of an outside chip supplier.

the differences stem from the fact that the 2nd Generation iPod Touch had its processor quietly boosted to 532MHz. Meanwhile, the iPhone 3G, Original iPhone and 1st Generation iPod Touch run at 412MHz. However, the differences must extend beyond this simple change, as there seem to be substantial performance differences between the similarly-clocked models as well.

While it's been assumed that these investments have been directed at the iPhone and iPod Touch, it's conceivable the technology will trickle to future devices.

Cook also continued to downplay Apple's interest in the "netbook" market:We're watching that space, but from our [point of view] the products are based on hardware that's much less powerful, software technology that's not good, cramped displays. We don't think that people are going to be pleased with those type of products. It's a category we watch, we have some ideas here, but we think the products there now are inferior and won't provide the kind of experience people want.

According to a press release from Imagination Technologies Group, Apple is "subscribing for" 8,200,000 new shares of Imagination Technologies Group which means Apple will have an ownership interest of 3.6% in the company. The press release also reveals that Apple is a licensee of Imagination's technology

Imagination Technologies has posted a series of job openings for OpenCL engineers, indicating that the open, general purpose GPU parallelism technology Apple spearheaded for use in Mac OS X Snow Leopard is destined to also play a significant role in boosting embedded graphics and video acceleration on the company's future handheld products.

For example, erasing and basic punctuation insertion, directional swipes (also referred to herein as "swipe gestures") over the alphabetic keys can be used as an alternative to striking certain keys. Because the Space and Backspace keys are quite frequently used, they are logical candidates for the rightward and leftward swipes, respectively. Leftward and rightward swipes intuitively match the cursor travel caused by these symbols. Following this cursor movement analogy, the Enter/Return may be invoked by a downward swipe, and a Shift/Caps may be invoked by an upward swipe. Alternatively, as the Enter and Shift functions may be less frequently invoked, these may be substituted for other functions as well. One alternative mapping for the upward swipe, for example, could be to activate an alternative numeric and punctuation keypad or a particular punctuation symbol like an apostrophe or period.

Apple has been experimenting internally with large form tablet devices for years, one source says, but there was concern that users wouldn't like the device. The difference now is the iTunes app store, which has thousands of games and other applications that are perfect for a touch screen device with an accelerometer.

A recently published patent application could make the iSight itself not only disappear, but move to the middle of the screen. MacBooks, iMacs, and even iPhones and iPod touches could take advantage of the new technology.

ZDNet reports that the iPhone 3.0 firmware will support quad-core processors in an upcoming iPhone hardware revision. While Apple has not yet detailed iPhone 3.0 firmware, MacRumors has independently heard from a reliable source of this same multi-core support in the 3.0 firmware which should accompany the next iPhone.

Hidden among the many announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a new PowerVR mobile graphics chip that could power advanced 3D, HD video and even general computing on an eventual generation of iPhones.

Imagination Technologies has quietly slipped out word this week of a new mobile chip known as the PowerVR SGX543.

A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command.

Apple today announced that Mark Papermaster will be coming to Apple as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, on April 24. Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apple's iPod and iPhone hardware engineering teams.

In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, Web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer-readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.

If so, this feature would likely come in the rumored iPhone 3.0 software update but would be limited to only one or two processes on current hardware. The next generation iPhone, however, would likely see less restricted background process support due to its improved hardware.

"In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device, opposite the touch screen display on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user's image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, the position of the optical sensor can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor may be used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition."

One of ARM's strengths is the ability to idle at incredibly low power rates then step up the power usage incrementally based on the CPU needed.

Would you give up a few hours of battery time to be able to play graphic-intensive video games on your iPhone? - That's what you'd get with Multi-core. With a solid single core Cortex A8 architecture (Like the Pre) Apple's browsing and gaming experience would improve without cost to the battery life.

Reg hardware is quoting AmTech Research's Doug Freedman (who happens to follow NVIDIA) when they say there is a good chance that Apple's upcoming iPhone 3.0 will contain an ARM System on a Chip from NVIDIA called Tegra.

Tegra was launched in June 2008. The Tegra 650 can support 1080p HD output using the H.264 codec - another Apple favorite, we note - and can encode video at 720p. It supports cameras with sensors of up to 12Mp.An on-board Ultra-low Power (ULP) GeForce graphics core provides 3D graphics through the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics API. The 650's ARM 11 core runs at 750MHz, though Nvidia also offers a lesser part, the 600, which runs at 650MHz.

The technological breakthrough is the first of its kind and is based on the ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A9 multicore processor, which represents a significant leap from previous generations of baseband/application processor architectures by providing unprecedented levels of performance and power efficiency.

The same Cortex-A9 multicore processor has been postulated as the CPU behind the rumors of Apple's next generation iPhone. ZDNet reported that the next generation iPhone could support up to quad-core processors. There has been some debate about how quickly ARM would be able to ramp up these processors as the original timeline for the Cortex-A9 had targeted late 2009/early 2010.

Apple appears to have invested heavily in bringing ARM design and development in-house with their acquisition of P.A. Semi and speculation that they are an architectural licensee of ARM's processors.

ARM partners had ramped up its Cortex A8 processor production and would have chips in production soon. This class of chip (TI OMAP3) is what the upcoming (TI OMAP3 series) Palm Pre, Archos, and Toshiba (Qualcomm Snapdragon) phones will have inside. We'll likely this type of chip in 2009 iPhones.

In addition, with the help of Sony Erricsson/Silicon Partners, ARM will be demonstrating multi-core processor Cortex A9 processor technology that will be used in 2010 running SymbianOS.The company said it will show a low-power Cortex chip manufactured using IBM's 32-nanometer process that could bring features like full 1080p high-definition video to smartphones while drawing less power.

ARM is demonstrating the first working example of a multicore processor that may dramatically speed up smartphones. Meanwhile, Apple is looking for iPhone engineers that can write multithreaded code that may take advantage of ARM's breakthrough.

A report issued on the flash RAM market indicates that Apple is inhaling supplies of memory components in preparation for the next generation iPhone, causing part shortages and raising the spot price for memory.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

More mention of iPhone video recording/conferencing. Wolfe digs a tiny bit deeper into the patent and pieces it together. A slightly interesting read but nothing really new. (if you read the patent like I did =))

iPhone owners make up 14% of mobile game downloads. Now this is a reason for me to believe we will see the next iPhone be a real powerhouse in terms of being a solid gaming device as well as a phone. It really already is pretty solid in gaming but I want to see solid'er...'er.......ummkay...

Next Generation iPhone in June Rumor Doubtful. Wow! You may as well went to any iPhone forum and picked up on one of the countless threads saying "iPhone possibly in June", then posted what you found, then posted the next day that it was all just a guess! I mean c'mon. iPhone in June? I say were still on! Quick let the world know I said it! Haha!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

So today I thought I would just post a bunch of little links to various stories I've read throughout the day. I may just start using this format to post all the stories of the day because it's easy, simple and I don't have to try and think up some opinion that's already stated in most stories anyhow.

Report hints at new iPhone in June. (ok, tell us something we all don't expect. besides it was probably misinterpreted as a guy saying something like "...yea, and ya know, Apple will probably be releasing a new iPhone in June anyways, so..." =/

Alexander Wolfe post in the link above his beliefs that this video-conferencing capability could possibly see light in the next version iPhone rumored by many to be announced to the world in June of this year.

"Here's a reference to video conferencing, buried amid a laundry list of features."

"In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, Web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer-readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors."

"But wait; it gets even better. Apple has given some thought to camera angles. (Must be the Pixar influence.) At first I thought this was Apple answering the common complaint that users have trouble taking their own pictures, because the camera is on the back of the phone. I quickly realized that Apple probably doesn't care about that. What it does care about is that, for video conferencing to work, you need a forward-facing lens. Thus there's this in the patent:"

"In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device, opposite the touch screen display on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user's image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, the position of the optical sensor can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor may be used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition."

"OK, so there you have it, proof in the patent that Apple's thought through what it needs to do to make the iPhone video-recording and –conferencing capable. I believe we will see these features in the third-generation iPhone."

Sounds good to me! Of course we've heard all of this buzz before for several months before the iPhone 3G was announced with article after article, leaked photos and definitive speculation from many. So I'm gonna play it safe this time and stand by "I'll believe it when I see it."

- Previous hirings talking about CMOS. They seem to go over the camera territory, into video recording territoryspecifically auto-white balance, auto- exposure. These are areas were Pure Digital had to do a fair bit of work on for the Flip for example.

- Upcoming PowerVR GPU chip video conferencing capabilities

- The capabilities of some carriers to actually already do 1 way video, 2 way audio

I'm sure if Apple could make this shine they could possibly double their iPhone sells of last year. Of course with the millions more that would surely jump on board you can bet that the network would bog down to a.....well, crippling crawl.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Flash is a very popular web plug-in that is used to deliver animation and video content on the web. Apple's iPhone has notably not supported Flash since its launch.

I've never really put much thought into having flash on an iPhone as most any experience I've ever had with flash on my pc usually bogs down or locks up requiring a restart which usually leads to swearing and mouse abuse (I've broken two already).

With all these rumors of flash and mutli-core iPhones though I don't guess it would be entirely out of line to assume that it become a possibility in a forthcoming model.

Really the only thing I would probably use flash for is online video (hulu, africam) as I would think flash games would be a little clunky unless specified for iPhone only.

"Bloomberg reported this weekend that Adobe Engineers are working diligently on getting Flash down to an acceptable level of power usage and performance to work on the iPhone/iPod touch architecture. The bad news? Don't expect this technology to become available in the first half of 2009.

The joint technology optimization is targeted for the ARMv6 and ARMv7architectures used in the ARM11™ family and the Cortex™-A series of processors and is expected to be available in the second half of 2009. The partnership stems from the Open Screen Project, a broad Adobe sponsored initiative of industry leaders - including ARM - to deliver a consistent runtime environment across multiple devices by taking advantage of Adobe Flash Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR. The initiative is set to address the challenges of Web browsing on a broad range of screens, and remove the barriers to publish content and applications seamlessly across screens. For more information, visit www.openscreenproject.org .

By the second half of 2009, the iPhone 3.0 Operating System will be around. So will new iPhone ARM Cortex A(8?) series hardware that will likely be able to handle the intensive CPU requirements that Flash takes to perform well. Will Apple back port it to older hardware? Perhaps but it is unclear how it will perform."

Well, I'm glad they seem so sure that iPhone 3.0 will definately be "around" and that if they mean the second half of 2009 that means 'announced in June, released July' ya know, since July would technically be the "second" half of 2009.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Somewhere out there, there's several new iPhone's lurking in the San Fran Bay area. Or that's what Pinch Media claims to have proof of.

"the first time an application using Pinch Analytics was run by a ‘iPhone 2,1′ device occurred back in early October 2008;

applications using Pinch Analytics were run by ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices very sporadically until mid-December 2008, when the pace picked up slightly;

to date, a few dozen distinct ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices have run almost two dozen different applications using Pinch Analytics;

when ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices run applications using Pinch Analytics’ optional geolocation tracking, they’re almost exclusively located in the south San Francisco Bay Area;

while most of the sessions have been made from wifi connections, there’s been a few connections over AT&T’s network, so presumably this device handles both;

the applications that have been run by Pinch Analytics don’t share much in common, except for their size — they’re among the larger applications to use our stuff, with hundreds of thousands to millions of unique users. "Sounds very interesting and if you ask me is very exciting news! Could we see a new iPhone possibly earlier than June (WWDC)? Super Bowl ad this Sunday perhaps?

"Apple uses these models numbers to distinguish between different hardware models. The original iPhone carries the model number of "iPhone 1,1" while the 3G iPhone is labeled "iPhone 1,2". These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices. Similarly, the iPod Touch was originally introduced as the "iPod 1,1" and the most recent hardware revision was labeled "iPod2,1". The 2,1 iPod Touch added a speaker, volume controls, microphone support and a much faster processor than the 1st generation model. This new model number can be found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist in an unencrypted firmware. ""Rumors of the next generation iPhone point to the support of Multi-Core CPUs and possibly Multi-Core GPUs from Imagination Technologies. Apple has been building a team of chip engineers over the past year to participate in their own ARM processor designs that will presumably be used in future iPhones. Schiller previously outlined Apple's natural product timelines and acknowledged that June is the usual timeframe for major iPhone revisions, although storage increases could happen at any time. "Hey! I'm fine with June!